New Orleans Louisiana has been able to push 20% of its SNAP or food stamp recipients from the program, according to USDA reports for the year thus far. As most must know by now, the Trump Big Bad Budget Bill continued tax breaks for the rich that was funded by projections of the number of people that could be pushed off of SNAP and Medicaid over coming years through increased work requirements and bureaucratic procedures.
One of the things that ACORN’s affiliate BRAVO, Benefit Recipients Access and Volunteer Organization, has been trying to discover in many states is exactly how this is being done, since by all admissions, these are families that are eligible for such programs. Working with members of A Community Voice/ACORN, we stumbled on one huge rock in the road: fax machines!
The department in Louisiana, in creating impediments to access and retention of SNAP benefits, required documentation of citizenship. To their credit, they did not require a birth certificate or passport, but they did require a certification by someone else of the individual’s citizenship on a special form. Unfortunately, the form could only be submitted in person at great time and trouble or by facsimile. The number of eligible recipients that might have easy access to a fax machine is miniscule. In rural areas of Louisiana, either way of submitting, fax or in-person, would be hugely burdensome, but even in New Orleans, it would not be easy.
The organizer talked to some members in the Lower 9th Ward, they were going to Arabi, the nearest suburb and paying $2 for a fax from a quick packaging store. As the organizer called around, city libraries seemed to be a better alternative. The cost advertised for a fax at a New Orleans library was only fifty cents. The next hurdle though was finding a library that was open. The local newspaper had reported that four had been closed, many for months, because of air conditioning problems. As the organizer called around three were still closed: Alvar Street in the upper 9th ward, Nora Navra on St Bernard Avenue, and Rosa Keller on South Broad Street. Sadly, all of these closed libraries are in largely African-American neighborhoods in the city.
When I asked Google where could I access fax machines near me, I got one address on Gentilly Road, one next to the Convention Center in the Central Business District, and the other in the French Quarter. The one on Gentilly is almost four miles away by car, located near Dillard University, at the Ace Check Cashing Office, which is hardly a place that any of us would want to direct members to try to use their fax machine, and God knows what they might charge.
Admittedly, we’re deeper in the weeds than many of you would want to travel with me as you read or listen to this report, but, hopefully, the message is loud and clear. These are state-contrived obstacles, dressed in sheep’s clothing, but with the impact of wolves, by default, and likely deliberate intent, making it difficult for eligible recipients to recertify and retain food stamp benefits. None of this has to do with work, being able-bodied, or any of the other ideological rationalizations. This is about indirectly denying benefits while pretending deniability according to the rules. I hate to think about how many families are being denied the access to food and are hungry because the state insists on an outdated technology, like fax machines or arduous visits, rather than the postal service or, god forbid, the now more ubiquitous ability to scan and email.